Romelu Lukaku: Man Utd ‘agree £75m fee with Everton for striker’

The 24-year-old Belgium international scored 25 Premier League goals last season.

MANCHESTER United have agreed a fee of around £75m with Everton for striker Romelu Lukaku, senior club sources have told the BBC.

The 24-year-old Belgium international scored 25 Premier League goals last season.

United, who have been chasing Lukaku for most of the summer, will not now be pursuing their interest in Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata.

Everton sources say no deal or agreement has been reached.

The move for Lukaku is not connected to talks aimed at taking United forward Wayne Rooney to Everton.

Jose Mourinho’s side are hopeful of concluding a deal in time for Lukaku to join the squad before they depart for a pre-season tour to the United States on Sunday.

The striker was on a list of forward options Mourinho gave to executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward before the end of last season.

It had been thought Lukaku would return to his former club Chelsea, who he joined from Anderlecht in 2011.

The striker was sold to Everton for £28m by Mourinho during the Portuguese manager’s second spell in charge of Chelsea in 2014.

Lukaku is a client of agent Mino Raiola, who also looks after Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan – three players all signed by United last summer.

The Belgian turned down the most lucrative contract offer in Everton’s history in March and later said: “I don’t want to stay at the same level. I want to improve and I know where I want to do that.”

Lukaku in stats

With a double against Hull City in March, Romelu Lukaku became the first Everton player since Gary Lineker in 1985-86 to hit 20 league goals in a season.
Lukaku is also only the fourth player to score more than 80 goals in the Premier League before turning 24 (also Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler and Wayne Rooney).
He has also scored more goals than any other Everton player in Premier League history (68).
Lukaku is one of only three players to have scored more than 10 goals in each of the last five Premier League seasons (alongside Giroud and Aguero).